Great Wall of China Trek

Thursday 27th October 2016

Sixteen supporters trekked along the Great Wall of China for Weldmar

Sixteen members of our local community have been working tirelessly over the past 12 months to fundraise and train for the Great Wall of China Challenge in aid of Weldmar Hospicecare, which took place at the end of October 2016.

With temperatures reaching 22 degrees in the day and plummeting down to 2 degrees at night, the trekkers were put through their paces – covering varied and steep terrain to complete the challenge.

Matt Smith of Weldmar said “I joined our sixteen trekkers on their challenge, and they all coped extremely well. The trek was extremely tough and challenging. As well as the actual trek, the team had to live without any washing or toilet facilities and camp outside in very cold temperatures. On one night the camp had to be evacuated due to flash flooding! However, all the trekkers stayed positive – remembering why they had signed up to take part in the challenge.”

Elaine Naylor from Portland was one of the Weldmar trekkers. She said “It has been very emotional; it’s been the most terrifying and the most exhilarating experience of my entire life. Tears of joy and tears of laughter”.

Viv Morrison from Weymouth, added “It’s been really, really tough but we worked well as a team and egged each other on – because we knew, at the end of the day, why we were doing this challenge”.

On Saturday evening, whilst still in Beijing, Matt announced the total to all of the trekkers, revealing that their hard work had raised over £73,000 for Weldmar Hospicecare.

Matt said “On behalf of Weldmar, I cannot thank all of the trekkers enough for their tireless support and enthusiasm over the past 12 months. Every trekker was pushed to their limits whilst in China but it was fantastic to see everyone pull together as a team. £ 73,127.69 is an astonishing amount of money and will make such a difference to patients and their loved ones here in Dorset. They should all be extremely proud of what they have achieved”.

The Great Wall of China Challenge was Weldmar’s fourth overseas challenge, following in the footsteps of their previous challenges – Sahara Desert Trek, Icelandic Challenge and Mont Blanc Challenge.